whether others have noted this distinction. Both varieties, if such they be, breed from August to November. A nest with two eggs was taken in the gardens on July 4th, 1889, but of course this is exceptionally early. Still, nests may be always found building in the latter part of the month.

The White-eared Honey-eater (Ptilotis leucotis) known here as the "greenback," is a handsomer bird than the greenie, and may be distinguished by the white patch on the side of the head, which gives the specific name. This bird never comes near the town, preferring the quietude of the bush. The first time I saw it was in October, 1888, near Marcus Hill, where I came across six or seven of the birds haunting a patch of furze in the bush. Hard as I looked I could discover nothing but old nests, and it was not till the following year that I lighted on a nest with one fresh egg, in the same spot. The nest is always near the ground, in an acacia hedge or furze bush, or even in long grass, where I have noticed it once or twice. The grass-trees (Xanthorrhaa) at the Queenscliff Road afford the bird a good nesting place, and just at the top of Fenwick's Hill there is a lot of low ti-tree scrub by the roadside, where one or two pairs breed every year. In 1891 I took a pair of eggs on September 5th, but October and November are the regular breeding months. The nest is deep and warm, lined with horsehair and feathers matted together into a strong felt. The regular clutch of eggs is two; once, however, in 1889, I took two eggs from a nest whence I had removed one a month previously. The white-eared honeyeater may be found in all the more thickly wooded parts of the district, as at Queenscliff Road, Spring Creek, Jan Juc, Anakie, and the You Yangs. It breeds wherever found, not being in any sense a migratory species. The same pair of birds will build within a few feet of the same spot year after year. The eggs are flesh pink with a sparse sprinkling of reddish spots.

The Yellow-faced Honey-eater (Ptilotis chrysops) is found all over the Geelong district, though its eggs are somewhat difficult to obtain. The bird is variously known as the "fruitbird," "moss-bird," "goldeneye," etc. The name "mossbird" comes from the nest, which is very often ornamented with mosses on the outside. The birds are common in gardens in the town until October, when they disappear into the quieter parts; the breeding season lasts thence till February. In 1890 I took a pair of eggs at Lake Connewarre on the 12th of that month. November is the height of the season, as for the majority of honey-eaters. Like the greenie, the yellow-faced honey-eater builds a pensile nest, most often in the projecting boughs of an acacia hedge, at an average height of eight feet from the ground. At other times the nest is built in mimosa scrub, or even in a briar bush, while in the

Otway Forest the messmate tree is favoured. A ti-tree creek is an excellent place to seek the nest in. Care must be taken in examining a nest of this species, for the birds will desert it on the slightest provocation. The eggs number generally two, sometimes three, and show many variations of colour; the commoner type closely resembles a small minah's egg in its thick red speckles, while a rarer variety has the yellowish ground colour and reddish-brown markings that distinguish the eggs of the honey-eaters as a class. I have found the bird breeding at Queenscliff Road, Anakie, Spring Creek, and in the coastal ti-tree from Point Lonsdale to Airey's Inlet.

Probably the least known member of the genus Ptilotis that breeds hereabouts is the Singing Honey-eater (P. sonora or vittata). Though found inland in other parts of the continent, with us it is rarely seen except in the belt of ti-tree above mentioned, which lies on the landward side of the sand hummocks; and so the bird has been called, not inaptly, the coast or sandhill honey-eater. So far as my own experience goes, the bird does not justify its vernacular title by any excess of melody. On the contrary it is a silent and shy bird for the most part, and one just catches a glimpse of it now and then on the top of some spray of ti-tree, whence next moment it has disappeared. A good deal of patience is necessary to discover the nest, and much scratching of countenance is frequently the sole result of a day's toil among the interlacing ti-tree boughs. On November 29th, 1890, I found a nest of this species near Barwon Heads with two young ones. On December 22nd of the same year I was fortunate enough to take a nest containing three fresh eggs on the hummocks at Airey's Inlet. Certainly the eggs, when found, repay a little trouble in getting them. They are not unlike those of the pallid cuckoo, save that there are no spots; the colour is a rich salmon pink, deepening in tint at the larger end. The nest is of the common honey-eater type, and is built fairly high up in a thick ti-tree; it is hardly distinguishable in form from that of the greenie, but is slightly larger. I noticed the birds in March, 1891, at the Sheepwash on the lower Barwon. They only leave the ti-tree of the coast in the winter, when they come inland a little to feed on the gum blossom. A nest taken at Spring Creek on October 17, 1891, contained three eggs, which is probably the usual clutch.

The Lunulated Honey-eater (Melithreptus lunulatus) is an occasional visitor only to the immediate neighbourhood of Geelong, when it makes its appearance in small flocks, but in the forests it is common and breeds there towards the end of the year. The bird may be known at once by its small, bright green body, black head and white breast, while the red patch over the eye will serve to distinguish it from other members of the genus Melithreptus. The nest is a beautiful

piece of construction; it is small-so small indeed as to be very hard to see when swung away up in a cluster of gum leaves-round, and cupshaped; and it is built of fine shreds of bark and fibre interwoven, while the inside is lined with hair or feathers. Nests of this species are rare at Queenscliff Road, though at Airey's Inlet I have often discovered the nest high up in a messmate tree. It is difficult to get at, since it is always far out in the leaves at the end of a high bough. Usually one has to cut through the bough some way from the nest, and then gradually draw it in until within reach. Three is the number of eggs laid, and the month of December is the time for finding them. The pallid cuckoo has evidently a high opinion of the lunulated honey-eater's care as a fosterparent, for one may often see the eggs of both species in the

one nest.

The Spinebill or Cobbler's Awl (Acanthorhynchus tenuirostris) is to be seen with the other honey-eaters in our gardens in the winter time, flitting hither and thither, and probing with its long beak the deep flowers of some honey-yielding shrub. To find the nest, however, is a hard matter, and seven years of hunting in this district left me still without the coveted set of eggs. I have, however, an egg in my collection taken at Airey's Inlet in 1890, and in January of this year (1897), I found a nest in a shortwood bush on the banks of Airey's Creek in a quiet locality some eight miles from the mouth. It was built of fine pieces of grass and warmly lined with feathers, some of which projected over the edge of the nest. The bird was very quiet and almost suffered herself to be caught. The nest was within easy reach of the ground, but, unfortunately, contained a pair of young birds.

Similar in its habits to the Spinebill is the Tasmanian honey-eater (Lichmera australasiana), a shy bird, and one whose eggs, so far as I know, have not been taken in the district, though it most certainly breeds in the scrub behind Spring Creek and Anglesea River. It frequents ti-tree creeks, and may be known by a horse-shoe shaped mark on the breast. A dash of yellow on the wings makes it something like the New Holland honey-eater. I have noted the Tasmanian honeyeater at Anakie, Spring Creek, and Jan Juc, and in that forest generally. In May, 1889, many of these birds were to be seen in the Botanical Gardens along with a dozen or so other species of honey-eater, but they did not remain till the spring. The nest is to be sought in the scrubby ti-tree that fringes forest creeks; it is wider and thicker than the nests of the majority of the smaller honey-eaters.

The Brush Wattle Bird (Anellobia mellivora) greatly resembles the common wattle bird in appearance, but is smaller

near the

in size and has not the yellow patch on the breast. I do not think this bird breeds in the Geelong district, though last summer I observed four or five "bush-wattlers Merrijig Creek on the Jan Juc Road. It is essentially a forestbird, and only visits the more open country in the winter. During June and July it inhabits the timbered parts of the Dog Rocks, near Batesford. The most likely locality for the nest would be the Anakies, where the birds appears to remain all the year round. The nest is like that of the wattle-bird and is similarly situated. The eggs are two in number.

The shyest of all the honey-eaters is the Fulvous-fronted (Glyciphila fulvifrons). Where there are wide heaths with low bushes and grass-trees and an occasional stunted gum, its weird piping note may be heard, resembling a human being whistling the first few bars of a tune in an undertone. In the Geelong district the habitat of the fulvous-fronted honeyeater is limited to the grass-tree plains and the patches of stunted grass tree that occur here and there on the untimbered parts of the eastern Otway. It may be met with near Wensleydale, and then southwards wherever the country is open, as far as the sea. But its most easily get-at-able haunt is the Grass Tree Plain that lies to the north of Spring Creek, outside the ring of the forest. No naturalist, so far as I am aware, has taken the eggs in this district, but the bird is most certainly not migratory, and in October, 1892, I came across some young ones squatted on the ground under a bush about eleven miles out along the Spring Creek Road. This would point to September as the best month to look for the eggs, and the low scrub on the Grass Tree Plain as the most likely place.

The Warty-faced Honey-eater (Meliphaga phrygia) is very seldom met with near Geelong, and can only be regarded as a chance visitor. In July, 1889, I noticed a pair of these birds at Airey's Inlet, and again in November, 1896, a single specimen at the Dog Rocks. The bird is brilliantly marked all over with black and pale yellow, is slightly smaller than a minah, and more like a large specimen of the New Holland honey-eater than anything else. In all probability it does not breed in the district.

Rarer still is the Graceful Honey-eater (Ptilotis ornata), which is very like the common greenie, but has light longitudinal markings of grey on the breast, which will enable it to be distinguished from that bird, and also a yellow mark on the neck in place of the silver-coloured "ring" of the greenie. It is occasionally a visitor to us in the winter time, when it may be seen clinging to sprays of pittosporum blossom at the tops of the trees. It has not been known to remain to breed. There is a good specimen of this bird in the Geelong museum.

WITH THE CAMERA TO APOLLO BAY..

BY S. MAWSON AND J. HAMMERton.

HAVING decided to take a trip to Apollo Bay for the Xmas holidays, it was decided that we could derive more pleasure and rest by driving our own buggy than by going by the usual method. Leaving Geelong on December 26th, a start was made for Deans Marsh, the sky having every appearance of rain; passing Layard white ibis were seen in great numbers, and a few miles further on the crows were equally numerous; on the edge of the Wordieboluc swamp, cormorants, plover, waterhen and swan were noted. A little further we passed the "Wormbete" station, the homestead with its garden close to the road forming a very pretty view.

At about half-past one we passed the well-known "Ingleby" station-dear to the memory of the museum Xmas camp in '94,--and watered the horses at the bridge on the road. At half-past two we reached Mr. Josiah Hunt's place near Deans Marsh, having completed our first day's stage of forty miles.

After tending our horses and enjoying a good repast prepared by the daughter of our host, we went in search of game and found the rabbits thick on every hand; we also had the pleasure of coming across a deserted nest of the wedge-tailed eagle in a messmate tree at a height of about 100 feet. Many birds were noticed, but nothing rare. At about six the rain which had been threatening all day set in and fell almost continuously till seven next morning, when we turned out to pay a visit to the milking yard and enjoy a morning nip.

After breakfast we were dubious about continuing our journey, owing to the still threatening sky, but at 11.30, after exposing a plate on the homestead, we harnessed up and bade adieu to our friends. Shortly after passing Darcy's Halfway House the rain began to fall again, and at Gerangemete a heavy thunder storm broke over us, the lightning being so vivid that the horses became almost unmanageable.

Passing Yaugher we reached Forest at 3 p.m., and we did full justice to the meal provided by Mr. Pengelly, of the "Terminus" Hotel. We were afterwards told that the rainfall in that district during the twenty-four hours was a little under two inches.

Next morning we were up at six and, after Charlie, the storeman, had been relieved of his molar by our medicine man (who had brought the necessary instruments of torture in his bag), we left at ten for the Bay. Near Barramunga the naturalist drew off the attention of the medicine man from his horses to a king lory in a tree near by, the result being that the wheels went over a stump with much ensuing discomfort to the naturalistic nerves.